It might’ve slipped past most people since it happened last week, but the daughter of a longtime ESPN announcer just picked up her first full-time broadcasting gig. Sophia Jones, daughter of ESPN mainstay Mark Jones, has been named the radio analyst for the Golden State Valkyries in their inaugural WNBA season.
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The Valkyries are 1-1 out of the gate, and Sophia’s also got two games under her belt. She’ll work alongside play-by-play voice Kevin Danna, who you might recognize from his work calling Stanford soccer.
Danna’s been around the Bay Area broadcast scene for a while. He’s called Santa Cruz Warriors games for 13 seasons, handled play-by-play for the Warriors’ Summer League, done Stanford women’s basketball, and even worked the sidelines for Cal football.
According to SFGate, Jones and Danna won’t travel with the team for road games; they’ll call those remotely from the Bay Area.
Of course, the last name Jones should sound familiar to Awful Announcing readers. Mark’s been all over ESPN for years, covering the NBA, college football, and now the UFL. He also does play-by-play for the Sacramento Kings on NBC Sports California. He’s not the only voice in the family, either; his older brother, Paul, is the radio play-by-play voice for the Toronto Raptors.
So, yeah, Broadcasting runs deep in this family.
Sophia started out playing basketball at San José State. Then, in her junior season, an injury sidelined her, but instead of stepping away, she jumped into the broadcast booth. She began calling Spartans games for the Mountain West Network and even shared the mic with her dad in 2023 during a San José State–Fresno State women’s game on NBC Sports Bay Area.
Now, she’s bringing that experience to the WNBA level less than a year after graduating in 2024.
It’s a big jump, but given her background, it’s not exactly a surprise. And if she picks up even half of her dad’s verbal arsenal, the WNBA just got a serious new voice.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.